O Tejo from Abilio Vieira on Vimeo.
i picked this up across at copenhagenize. what a lovely idea!
the keeper of sheep goes along something like this
The Keeper of Sheep II
My gaze is clear like a sunflower.
It is my custom to walk the roads
Looking right and left
And sometimes looking behind me,
And what I see at each moment
Is what I never saw before,
And I’m very good at noticing things.
I’m capable of feeling the same wonder
A newborn child would feel
If he noticed that he’d really and truly been born.
I feel at each moment that I’ve just been born
Into a completely new world…
I believe in the world as in a daisy,
Because I see it. But I don’t think about it,
Because to think is to not understand.
The world wasn’t made for us to think about it
(To think is to have eyes that aren’t well)
But to look at it and to be in agreement.
I have no philosophy, I have senses…
If I speak of Nature it’s not because I know what it is
But because I love it, and for that very reason,
Because those who love never know what they love
Or why they love, or what love is.
To love is eternal innocence,
And the only innocence is not to think…
trans richard zenith
you can find this and more pessoa here
5 comments:
wow. just brilliant
isn't it tho?
i believe in the world as in a daisy should be some sort of motto for life
yes, i think this is just about the perfect line -
and amazing how the rest works so well, taking into account that much of what is being said is more or less "common wisdom" or knowledge
From the comments i've read i suppose Pessoa is a stranger for u guys. Well, Fernando Pessoa is "only" one of the greatest writers and author's in Portugal's history/literature. The most striking characteristic in his writing is not the poetry (which is beautiful) but his ability to criticize and satirize in his novels the portuguese society in from the time in - late 19th and beginning of 20th century. In reality, most of his critics are still valid today;)...Sorry for the length. Just a little insight on his fantastic writer:)
thanks for passing but pvc
i don;t know how well known pessoa is generally but, in poetry circles at leatst, pretty well i think, not least because of the homonym thing which seems to get people's minds exercised!
i think i've got just about all his poetry in english translation and it seems quite available these days. not that it was always so - my first book of pessoa that i picked up is a blingual spanish/portugues edition - took me a lot of time with the dictionary to get thru!
one of the problems at the time was that i didn't know what it was supposeed to sound like. thanks goodness youtube came along!
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